Pesticide menace cripples Punjab village 26 Aug 2007, 0136 hrs IST,Priya Yadav,TNN
GIANA (TALAWANDI SABO): Young children with tufts of gray hair, water that burns the insides as it goes down the throat, entire villages suffering from a variety of cancerous ailments. That's what unfettered and unmonitored use of pesticides has done in a Punjab struggling with unsustainable agriculture. Giana, for instance, is a prime and rather poignant example of what has and can go wrong, crying as it is for urgent state intervention. One just has to see Manjit to understand the crisis. At first glance, the 11-year-old boy looks like an old man, his grey hair and failing eyesight adding to that disturbing trend. It's only when he comes nearer that his real age shows, startling strangers and visitors. In his village, though, people have got used to his freak looks. After all, there are many children in Giana who have grown â¤old' much before their time. "Our children begin greying after three," said Banta Singh, 30 â¤" again, with lots of white in his mane. "Youth has passed us by." Villagers in this ghost town are still a bit befuddled, but experts blame the indiscriminate use of pesticides that eventually seep into food and contaminate underground water as the root cause triggering this abnormality. "Water across the state, either due to pollution or excessive use of pesticides, has become so harmful that we have launched a scientific investigation to study if it is leading to changes in the DNA," said J S Thakur, an assistant professor at Chandigarh PGI's community medicine department. Rajesh Kumar, who heads the department, added, "Indiscriminate use of pesticides, absolute ignorance about the damage caused with faulty pesticide storage and use, and disposal of empty pesticide containers are major factors contributing to incidence of cancer here. Very high levels of heavy metals were found in water and vegetables in that region." There isn't yet an exact figure, but doctors at the premier institute do agree that an alarmingly high number of cancer cases, queuing up at OPDs, come from the Talwandi Sabo-Mansa belt. An extensive research is now on in PGI to understand the problem and find out if any gene mutation is occurring. This has also intrigued experts abroad. "A team of doctors from England has already taken samples and pictures of at least seven of our students," said Ranbir Singh, a teacher in the only government high school in the village. "There is a huge problem somewhere." There is. When the school bell rings end of classes for the day, a horde of students with grey heads rush out. "My hair started turning white when I was eight years old," said Ramandeep, patting her head as if for an answer. "Now 80% is white," the girl, just 12, added. "The only person who really gets bothered is my mother who fears that getting a match outside the village would be a problem." _______________________________________________ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
